Glaucoma is an ophthalmic disease that leads to irreversible visual impairment. It is the fourth most common cause of blindness and the second most common cause of visual loss in the United States, and the most common cause of irreversible visual loss among African-Americans. Generally speaking, the disease is characterized by a progressive neuropathy caused at least in part by deleterious effects resulting from increased intraocular pressure on the optic nerve. In normal individuals, intraocular pressures ranges from 12 to 20 mm Hg, averaging approximately 16 mm Hg. However, in individuals suffering from glaucoma, intraocular pressures generally rise above 25 to 30 mm Hg and can sometimes reach 70 mm Hg. Importantly, the loss of vision can result from intraocular pressures only slightly above or even within the statistically normal range, in eyes which are unusually pressure-sensitive, over a period of years. Moreover, extremely high pressures (e.g., 70 mm Hg) may cause blindness within only a few days. [See, e.g., P. L. Kaufman and T. W. Mittag, “Medical Therapy Of Glaucoma,” Ch. 9, Sec. II (pp. 9.7-9.30) In P. L. Kaufman and T. W. Mittag (eds.): Glaucoma (Vol. 7 of S. M. Podos and M. Yanoff (eds): Textbook of Ophthalmology Series). London, Mosby-Year Book Europe Ltd. (1994); A. C. Guyton, Textbook of Medical Physiology (W. B. Saunders Co., Sixth Ed.), pp. 386-89 (1981)].
Open-angle glaucoma constitutes approximately 90% of all primary glaucomas and is characterized by abnormally high resistance to fluid (aqueous humor) drainage from the eye. Normal resistance is required to maintain an intraocular pressure sufficient to maintain the shape of the eye for optical integrity. This resistance is provided by the trabecular meshwork, a complex tissue consisting of specialized endothelial cells, connective tissue beams and extracellular matrix. The resistance of the trabecular meshwork normally is such that intraocular pressure is ˜16 mm Hg, a pressure at which aqueous humor leaves the eye at the same rate at which it is produced (2.5 μL/minute).
Typical treatments for glaucoma comprise a variety of pharmaceutical approaches for reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) to normal levels. Beta-blockers and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors only reduce aqueous humor production, which is needed to nourish the avascular lens and corneal endothelial cells, and the prostaglandins effect is on the uvealscleral outflow pathway, which only accounts for 10% of the total facility. There are currently no commercially approved therapeutic agents which act directly upon the trabecular meshwork, the site of increased resistance to aqueous humor outflow and thus responsible for elevated IOP. Therefore, a medical need remains for improved IOP-lowering medications that target this structure. Pharmacological agents which target the trabecular meshwork may provide relief to the significant numbers of patients that do not respond adequately to current IOP-lowering medications and/or cannot tolerate the side effects associated with these agents.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,586,425; 6,110,912; and 5,798,380 disclose a method for the treatment of glaucoma using compounds that affect the actin filament integrity of the eye to enhance aqueous humor outflow. These patents also specifically disclose kinase inhibitors and latrunculin-A, latrunculin-B, swinholide-A, and jasplakinolide, which cause a perturbation of the actin cytoskeleton in the trabecular meshwork or the modulation of its interactions with the underlying membrane. Perturbation of the cytoskeleton and the associated adhesions reduces the resistance of the trabecular meshwork to fluid flow and thereby reduces intraocular pressure.
Trabeculectomy is the most common form of glaucoma filtration surgery and remains as the first-line therapy for surgical reduction of pharmacologically uncontrolled intraocular pressure in primary open angle glaucoma. This procedure establishes a limbal fistula through which aqueous humor drains into the subconjunctival space establishing a filtering bleb to lower intraocular pressure. The success of the procedure is highly dependent on pharmacological modulation of wound healing.
A major advance in the surgical management of glaucoma has been the use of antimetabolites to prevent scarring after glaucoma filtration surgery. Postoperative scarring of the filtering bleb is the most crucial factor in determining the short and long-term outcome of modem glaucoma filtration surgery. The antimetabolites mitomycin C (MMC) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) are the most widely used to suppress scarring and thus failure of the filtering bleb. In a large retrospective study, conventionally performed trabeculectomy, has shown a failure rate of up to 30% within 3 months after surgery. To lower the incidence of this detrimental complication, various methods have been investigated in order to avoid the naturally occurring scarring of the filtering bleb, mostly dealing with the intraoperative or postoperative application of antimetabolic drugs—that is, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or mitomycin C (MMC), the two most widely used cytotoxic agents.
Despite their positive long-term effect on prolonged filtration, the application of cytotoxic drugs to a surgically opened eye increases the incidence of severe complications such as concomitant increases in vision threatening complications. MMC exhibits a high incidence of severe post-application complications as does 5-FU although its side effects mainly affect the corneal epithelium and its clinical use is limited by severe pain and discomfort to the patient. No sufficient method has been established to achieve satisfying postoperative long term surgical results with only minimal or no side effects for the patient.
There exists a need for effective and cost-practical cytoskeletal active compounds to treat glaucoma, to modulate wound healing after trabeculectomy, and to treat other diseases or disorders that are affected by the integrity of the actin cytoskeleton. Natural latrunculins, cytoskeletal active macrolides harvested and isolated from marine sponges such as Latrunculia magnifica, Negombata magnifica, and Spongia mycofijiensis, and from nudibranches, for example Chromodoris lochi, are difficult to obtain a large quantity. Latrunculin analogs currently can only be prepared using lengthy, low-yielding, and impractical syntheses (A. B. Smith III et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992, 114, 2995-3007; J. D. White and M. Kawasaki, J. Org. Chem. 1992, 57, 5292-5300; A. Fürstner et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 5358-5360; A. Fürstner et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2005, 102, 8103-8108). There exists a need for novel cytoskeletal active compounds that can be prepared using simple and practical synthetic procedures.